Monday, October 21, 2013

bAnSAI! XXL? Overture

7 Oct 2013, Monday
I am sitting in office, it's is raining and moral is reaching new lows. The season is coming to its end and I have not done any hard climbing this year so far. But back to beginning.Jan-Jun 2013
I spent first half of the year training three times a day waiting for the rain to stop. To no avail. It was raining and it was pouring. Main objective for this year was Abyss, but it became clear that those tufas will be out of order for 2013.
So I switched my attention to new now yet climbed line at Gorges du Loup. It starts with short powerful route Asai, then continuing to the very top of the wall. Estimated grade ≥ 8c+.11 Aug 2013
Belgian climber Jérôme de Boeck just did the first ascent of aforementioned line, naming it Asai XXL and assigning the grade 8c+/9a

A guardian of Deverland

8 Oct 2013, Tuesday
Afternoon off work, another try in Asai. After arriving to the cliff I was positively shocked, it was one of first days when the air did not resemble sauna. On the contrary, it is dry and cool. Back to the routine, quick 8a+ warmup, then Asai. I cruise through insane bouldery section at the beginning, reach big round undercling, go for explosive final section, neatly get all those pinches, skip quickdraw making thing very interesting indeed for belayer and I am at the jugs. Small rest, last tricky boulder and I clip first chain.
What now? Try second part. First part is under control, quite tired when going through the roof, quickly up with the tufas, small rest before final boulder, second chain is so close, tine mistake in footwork and long fly.
Mixture of euphoria and disappointment is weird. I did Asai (8c/8c+ or hard 8c), but I missed Asai XXL (8c+/9a or hard 8c+) by hair width.
To be continued...